Wednesday, 24 September 2014

The Astrologer’s Daughter

Melbourne
based lawyer Rebecca Lim is the author of 14 books for kids and Young Adults.
Her Mercy series involves the main
character as an angel. Her Total Girl books
are for younger readers about fashion and friends. This book, The Astrologer’s Daughter came out in
July 2014. It follows a theme of astrology in a tangle of genres- mystery,
thriller, adventure and love.

Lim cleverly drops
us into the streets of China Town in inner city Melbourne - into the life of
young Avicenna Crowe who is alone in a tiny apartment after her mother, Joanne
mysteriously vanishes. We learn that
Avicenna and her mother have moved around a lot and that Joanne had been
stalked in the past. One side of Avicenna’s face is scarred from a house fire.
Her father died in that fire.

Just like her
mother, Avicenna has the gift of reading the past, present and future. They are
not really fortune tellers and they are not strictly psychics. They use astrology- a method that’s based on
plotting a client’s birth information on a circular chart a bit like a clock
face.

‘Twelve
houses, two-hour intervals with midnight at the cusp of the fourth house, noon
at the cusp of the tenth…. Fill the interior with a map of the heavens as it
was at the exact time, date and place of birth…’

I found the
explanations of this process interesting but, to be honest, beyond my
understanding. The police investigating Joanne’s disappearance are also sceptical
of this gift and suspect foul play leaving young Avicenna desperate to find her
own answers.

She decides
to read the charts for her mother’s clients and conduct her own investigation.
Her search takes her into dangerous territory- some unsavoury people and
desperate clients all linked to the violent unsolved murder of a young girl.

Throw in a
love triangle between Avicenna, her school friend Simon Thorn and a rich,
handsome client and you have a compelling story with a thrilling, action packed
plot. You will need to read the book to find how Lim
expertly weaves all these elements together. I would recommend it to kids 14 years and
over.